MCP Fundamentals: One Protocol Instead of M × N Integrations

The Model Context Protocol from the spec up: why M clients × N integrations collapses into one open standard, the host/client/server architecture, the tools–resources–prompts primitives, stdio and Streamable HTTP, and the trust model that makes installing a server a decision about code you run.

Content current as of 2026-09.

Lessons

1. The M × N problem
2. The primitives: tools, resources, prompts — and elicitation
3. Transports, statelessness, and what replaced sessions
4. The trust model: consent, annotations, and code you run
5. The registry and the ecosystem, honestly